Late equaliser leaves City to draw cold comfort

Thursday 19 February 2009 17.10 EST
First published on Thursday 19 February 2009 17.10 EST

With the snow swirling and temperatures well below zero, Manchester City fans of a certain generation might have turned their minds back to one of the club's more celebrated matches of the 1960s when a snowy 4-1 thrashing of Tottenham Hotspur became known as the Ballet on Ice. Last night, however, was a typical story of the modern-day City – some good bits, some bad bits and, ultimately, a familiar sense of disappointment.

Mark Hughes's players produced some slick, penetrative football in difficult conditions but, in the end, this was another frustrating night for a side that continues to lurch from looking wonderfully inventive to dangerously vulnerable when play goes from one of the field to the other.

They led twice and Stephen Ireland's 10th goal of the season, to make it 2-1, ought to have established them as the overwhelming favourites to reach the last 16. But City's inability to defend crosses has been a repetitive weakness over recent weeks and it resurfaced here, in the first minute of stoppage time, when the substitute Martin Vingaard headed in Copenhagen's equaliser.

It was a harsh lesson for City in the art of killing off a game because Hughes's dismay was undoubtedly compounded by the fact that Robinho, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Craig Bellamy had all wasted good chances to make it 3-1 in the previous quarter of an hour. Robinho, in particular, will reflect he should have done better when he ran clear in the 89th minute only to shoot weakly at the goalkeeper, Jesper Christiansen.

Still City will be in a position of strength when the teams meet again in Manchester next Thursday. "When you allow your opponents back into it right at the death it is very hard to take," said Hughes. "We certainly had chances to put the tie beyond them. But it has put us in a good position. Beforehand we would have taken a positive result like this, with away goals."

His optimism was understandable because overall City had passed the ball better and shown the greater invention once Nedum Onuoha, with a rare goal, brought a slumbering game into life just before the half- hour, aided and abetted by a wretched mistake from Christiansen.

The near-blizzard conditions had made it a difficult evening to be a goalkeeper – there was also the rarity of a dropped Shay Given catch – and it is fair to say Christiansen, a three-time Danish goalkeeper of the year, may never have a more embarrassing moment on a football field.

Onuoha, a centre-half, had scored only once before in his professional career. Having run on to Ireland's clever pass, his shot lacked any form of confidence and was aimed straight at Christiansen. It should have been such a simple save, indeed, that Bellamy instinctively started remonstrating with Onuoha for not squaring the ball. But then everything seemed to go into slow-motion as the ball re-emerged from beneath Christiansen's body and trickled over the goal-line.

For all their good fortune City deserved the lead and Hughes described as "excellent" his attacking quartet of Robinho, Ireland, Wright-Phillips and Bellamy. The last, in particular, looked effective and Robinho, despite his reluctance to track back, put in an improved performance.

The disappointing part for Hughes was his team's defending. Vingaard was unchallenged for the game's dramatic late twist and Alton Almeida eluded Wayne Bridge far too easily to head in Copenhagen's first equaliser after 56 minutes. In between there were several other moments when City looked vulnerable.

At 1-1 the Danish supporters had switched up the volume, sensing their team could complete a comeback. Instead the decibel levels dropped within six minutes as Wright-Phillips crossed from the right and the ball fell to Ireland to fire in a first-time shot from 10 yards.

That forced Copenhagen to adopt a more adventurous approach. Yet, just as it looked as though City had won their fifth away game in Europe this season, Dame N'Doye crossed from the right and Vingaard took advantage of the dubious marking.